Liverpool reach agreement to sign Giovanni Leoni from Parma
The Premier League club will pay a fee in the region of £26million (€30m) plus add-ons for the 18-year-old Italian youth international.
The player has been given permission to travel to Merseyside to agree personal terms and undergo a medical, which is expected to begin on Thursday.
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The club's plan is for Leoni to be immediately integrated into the first-team set-up for the upcoming season with any suggestion of a loan move completely ruled out.
Leoni only joined Parma last summer and went on to make 17 appearances, including 14 from the start, in Serie A, as the newly-promoted club finished 16th.
He has been capped by Italy's Under-19 side, and was contracted to Parma until summer 2029.
Liverpool have been looking for defensive reinforcements since selling Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen last month with the move for Leoni in conjunction with the pursuit of Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace.
'The clubs have agreed a deal but he hasn't signed for us yet. The moment he signs for us, I can go into more detail,' head coach Arne Slot said of Leoni in his press conference on Thursday.
'And the other one is of course (Guehi) the answer you always get from me. He's not our player. Unfortunately he was the captain of the team who we lost against last Sunday. If you want to have any talks about him you should go to Palace, to (Oliver) Glasner and ask him his opinion about him.'
Slot only has two fully fit central defensive options at his disposal ahead of the Premier League opener against Bournemouth on Friday in Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, although Joe Gomez has returned to training after an Achilles injury.
The Premier League champions have enjoyed a busy summer with Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong arriving from Bayer Leverkusen alongside Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt and Milos Kerkez from Bournemouth while the club maintain an ongoing interest in Newcastle United's Alexander Isak.
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